When English explorers and colonists first
arrived on the coast of North America, they encountered Algonkian-speaking
peoples. The term Algonkian*
isn’t a tribal name; but one of the largest group of linguistically related
tribes in North America. Algonkian-speaking tribes lived in the area from
coastal North Carolina to Canada, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky
Mountains. They were the peoples who met the English at Roanoke in 1584,
at Jamestown in 1607, and at Plymouth in 1620, and they were among those
who first met French explorers and colonizers in Canada. (*Also
spelled Algonquin, Algonquian, Algonkin.)

The Algonkian, with whom we are concerned here,
were relative newcomers to coastal North Carolina, having come in a series
of migrations from the north. To some extent they retained cultural elements
from their Northeastern Algonkian traditions, but there was also cultural
borrowing from their neighbors as they adapted to the geographic and climatic
conditions of the area. They were more water-oriented and placed more emphasis
upon hunting, fishing, and gathering than did their neighbors. They lived
in the coastal area of North Carolina from the Neuse River northward to
the Chesapeake Bay. To the north they were bordered by the Virginia Algonkians;
on the northwest and west by the Iroquoian-speaking tribes of the Tuscarora,
Meherrin and Nottaway; and on the southwest by the Woccon and other Siouan-speaking
tribes. The approximate 6000-square mile Carolina Algonqkian territory
of northeastern North Carolina included the Chowanoke, Weapemeac, Poteskeet,
Moratoc, Roanoke, Secotan, Pomuik, Neusiok, Croatan and possibly the Chesepiooc.

On this web site will be posted source materials
by anthropologists, archaeologists and historians which deal with the Carolina
Algonkian, and links to related sources already online. As the reader will
note, the various authors offer different points of views on some issues.
It will be up to the reader to discern these differences. I only wish to
make these materials available to one and all.

Anyone aware of other source materials, new
publications, or any field work being conducted concerning the Carolina
Algonkian, please let me know. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Please
contact me at:
Kay Midgett Sheppard .

Decline
of the Coastal TribesChapter IV, in The American Indian
in North Carolina by Rev. Douglas L. Rights, Durham, NC: Duke University
Press, (1947). Republished: Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, 1957